Mrs White and Her (and Other Women's) Husbands
by Perydot
Summary: Stories about Mrs. White's dalliances with men - the ones she's married to, the ones she isn't married to, and the ones that left her in their wills and in (crocodile) tears. [Based on the movie, Clue (1987); drabble collection]
1. i

i.

The first time she ever realized she was a woman of vixenish appeal was also the first time she ever dabbled with marriage. It wasn't her marriage, to be clear, and she didn't get married at the end of it. It was, however, what sent her down her so called career path.

She was barely a legal adult, working as a secretary to this bigshot D.C. lawyer. She didn't quite understand why she had gotten the job, but she didn't question it. At least she had money to support herself. But after one day of working overtime and acting sweeter than a cup of coffee with 6 packets of sugar, she got the answer to the question of her employment.

Her boss, apparently, had taken a liking to her delicate, pale features when he saw her walking into the law firm. He made sure she was hired and working for him, so he could see her daily. He told her this after he pulled her into his lap, his rough hands gripping her thin waist, his equally rough lips grazing the skin of her neck. She tried not to act as repulsed as she was – the man was nearly three times her age! – and played along with him. If it meant she could keep her job and get an extra bonus, she didn't mind it as much.

The affair went on for almost 6 months. He was thoroughly smitten – in love, even – and had promised to leave his wife for her. She didn't know why he promised that, she never said anything about taking their so called relationship to the next step. Maybe he thought it cruel to play with this angelic, pale girl without making her a wife. She didn't.

And he kept good on that promise. He had the most unfortunate timing, she thought. He served his wife their divorce papers on April 1st, Fool's Day. She laughed at him with that shakiness that she had seen so often in sheltered and drunken housewives. She had always been so calm and put together – thought it cliché and so girlish to act anything less – so she had never experienced that shakiness ever in her life. (Well, forgetting about that dinner party that turned out not to be a dinner party, she's never experienced it.)

He told her this as she lounged on the hotel room sofa. She idly traced the faint pattern in the silken fabric. He said that they could get married within half a year, she could stop working, and have him take care of her the rest of her life. She pondered his proposal. Never work for the rest of her life, live in a huge house befitting a noble, a lifestyle befitting one, too. She considered it for all of five seconds before she turned to him with her doe-like eyes. A smile played on her lips. "Go back to your wife while you still can."


	2. ii

The second time she dabbled with marriage were actually her own. She had taken a trip to New York after ending her affair with her boss and had immediately ran into who would end up being her first husband. The luckiest of the bunch, she had to say.

She came off the train, suitcases in hand, and walked around in a daze. The city was already overpowering her and she had only been there a minute. In her daze, one of her suitcases had hit the lucky man right in the thigh. He cursed, his voice louder than the sounds of shuffling feet, and his handsome face scrunched up into a mess of pain. "Whatcha tryin'a do, lady? Stab me to death?" he yelled her. She stumbled with her words for the first time in her life, trying to apologize.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Lady. I gotta go!"

And he was going to work… at the hotel she was staying at in New York. He saw her when she walked through the revolving doors, him talking to some low level bellhop for royally messing up with a guest's bags. He stared at her as she strode into the hotel and to the front desk.

"We meet again, huh, Lady?"

It was after that – him pushing out the front clerk out the way and taking over her check in, even taking her up to her room – that they had this long affair. It lasted all of spring and summer when she had only planned on being New York just long enough for the scandal of her affair to disappear from D.C. To be honest, she had honestly loved the man. He was the first and only one of her husbands that she fell in love with.

They got married against the words of his parents, these old Jewish businesspeople. And it turned out those old Jews knew best; their relationship ended by New Years'. She didn't get anything out of the divorce besides some money and diamonds. The money helped her get back to D.C. and pay for the rent for a new apartment.

As for the diamonds? Well, she's had them ever since.


End file.
